5 NATO Troops Slain In Afghanistan

The Western military on Sunday suffered its most lethal day in a month in Afghanistan, with five troops killed in the south and east, the NATO force said.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government said an Afghan diplomat kidnapped by insurgents two years ago in Pakistan's tribal areas had been freed a day earlier. A brief statement from the presidential palace credited his release on ""persistent efforts"" on the part of the Pakistani and Afghan governments but gave no details.

The envoy, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, was released in eastern Afghanistan, across the border from where he had been seized. Insurgents based in Pakistan's tribal areas are able to move back and forth across the frontier with little impediment.

Fighting generally eases as the winter sets in, because many Taliban and other fighters spend the season in Pakistan, and snow in the high mountain passes makes it difficult to move between the two countries. This year, however, clashes have persisted even as the weather has begun to turn cold.